Senior Backend Engineer

Senior Backend Engineer
REMOTE / FULL-TIME
APPROX HIRE DATE: Dec 2023

About Amira Learning:
Amira is now and has always been a remote team. You can live where you like in the continental United States. The company is a rapidly growing AI startup (the only edtech company on the Forbes 50 AI list) and was recently named by Business Insider as one of 30 startups to bet your career on.

Amira’s mission is to reinvent the way kids learn to read. AI is changing everything. At Amira, you will use the power of machine learning to help every child become a masterful and motivated reader.

Amira is a Time Magazine Best Invention of 2021. We’ve been profiled in Forbes, featured in the NY Times, selected as the “Future of Education” by the Wall Street Journal, won dozens of awards for software excellence, and exploded into schools across the country. Amira is a breakthrough innovation having a real impact on kid’s lives and societal equity.

You will join a world-class team that has built some of the most successful and widely used applications in American schools. You will create the next generation of AI-powered software for the classroom and home. You will be focused on using your analytical skills, spreadsheet mastery, and programming/scripting abilities to identify ways to make Amira an even better tutor.

Amira was created at Carnegie Mellon University. The first AI-powered tutor, Amira is able to listen to young children read out loud, assess their mastery and deliver 1:1 personalized tutoring. Google and Amazon are investors & partners. Already at work in 48 states and 6 countries, Amira is accelerating reading mastery for struggling readers.

About this role:
We are seeking a Senior Backend Engineer with practical experience building great software. You will help to create web services that deliver ML models, data for reporting and provide the backbone for an AI-powered educational platform. You should have something like a decade building high quality, high use software. Real experience working with a cloud platform, preferably AWS, is required.
This job is not an Architect’s position. The emphasis is on coding and hands-on development.

Who You Are:
● You have many years of experience as a backend engineer.
● Strong knowledge of Relational and NoSQL datastores and experience with data processing and data movement.
● Experience with PySpark or similar data processing frameworks is a plus.
● You have experience creating commercial SaaS software.
● You have experience working with AWS.
● You are a strong Python programmer
● You have experience with Node(js)
● You have a strong grounding in good programming techniques.
● You understand enough about devops to use and maintain the deployment pipeline.
● You want to continue to be a hands-on coder and engineer.
● You have a desire to be at a Silicon Valley start-up, with the desire and commitment that requires.
● You are able to enjoy working on a remote, distributed team and are a natural collaborator.
● You love writing code – creating good products means a lot to you. Working is fun – not a passport to get to the next weekend.

What You’ll Do:
● Work within AWS to build backend web services
● Build and optimize data processing systems using SQL/NoSQL, Data Lakes, and Data Movement technologies
● Work with PySpark and other data processing frameworks to handle large scale data.
● Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define, design, and ship new features written in Node and/or Python.
● Ensure the performance, quality, and responsiveness of applications.
● Identify and correct bottlenecks and fix bugs.
● Build EdTech functionality that reflects best practices in neuroscience and reading science.
● Work in an environment that supports your individual growth

Qualifications
● Bachelor’s degree, and/or relevant experience
● 5+ years of software development experience - preferably in the Education SaaS industry
● Ability to operate in a highly efficient manner by multitasking in a fast-paced, goal-oriented environment.
● Exceptional organizational, analytical, and detail-oriented thinking skills.
● Proven track record of meeting/exceeding goals and targets.
● Great interpersonal, written and oral communication skills
● Experience working across remote teams

Amira’s Culture
● Flexibility – We encourage and support you to live and work where you desire. Amira works as a truly distributed team. We worked remotely before COVID and we’ll be working remotely after the pandemic is long gone. Our office is Slack. Our coffee room is Zoom. Our team works hard but we work when we want, where we want.
● Collaboration – We work together closely, using collaborative tools and periodic face to face get togethers. We believe great software is like movie-making. Lots of talented people with very different skills have to band together to build a great experience.
● Lean & Agile -- We believe in ownership and continuous feedback. Yes, we employ Scrum ceremonies. But, what we’re really after is using data and learning to be better and to do better for our teachers, students and players.
● Mission-Driven – What’s important to us is helping kids. We’re about tangible, measured impact.

What Amira offers
● Competitive Salary
● Large Company benefits (even though we’re a startup)
● Meaningful Option Ownership. (yes there is upside)
● Cutting Edge Work in deep learning and AI
● The opportunity to help children around the world have a better life. Our mission isn’t a spin on making money – we only make money when we do good for students.

Amira Learning is proud to celebrate diversity and is committed to building an inclusive workplace regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.